Slow movements on projects have resulted in the US$70 million deposited by Norway into the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) remaining in the World Bank-controlled account over two years after Oslo agreed to pay for Guyana to protect its forests.
The funds have recently been the subject of intense debate after the opposition cut from the budget all but one dollar from an allocation of $18.39 billion covering a number of low carbon projects under the Ministry of Finance. The projects were the Amaila Falls Project ($16.4 billion), Amerindian land titling ($202.1 million), Amerindian Development Fund ($205 million), small and micro enterprise development ($512.5 million), adaptation project – Cunha Canal ($410 million) and institutional strengthening of agencies connected to the Low Carbon Development Strategy ($615 million).
The opposition argued that the allocation was expunged as there was no guarantee that the money would be released to Guyana by the World Bank, which is managing the funds for the Norway forest deal. It has been argued that the government should have handled this allocation by way of a conditional appropriation.
In his budget speech, Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh said that government envisions the advancement of a number of core LCDS initiatives during this year. He identified the commencement of construction of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) to which government proposes to provide US$80 million of equity. Additionally, he said, Amerindian communities will benefit from a land titling and demarcation project, the Amerindian Development Fund will channel funds directly to Amerindian communities to support the development of community - identified priority projects, and a micro and small enterprise development programme will address the major bottlenecks in the development of a strengthened entrepreneurial and small business sector. He also singled out the Cunha Canal rehabilitation project and said that it is expected that other climate adaptation projects to be funded under the GRIF will be identified going forward.
When contacted for an update on the projects, Minister of Natural Re-sources and the Environment, Robert Persaud, asked that questions be forwarded to him via email and said that he would respond yesterday. However, there was no response from him up to press time.
However, Stabroek News was told that thus far only the institutional strengthening project has been given the green light for funds to be allocated since it is the only one for which a full project document has been submitted. But no money has yet been allocated from the GRIF, this newspaper was told. Funds for this project will be channelled through the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank and on its website, the IDB says that the project was approved on February 1, 2012. It remains at this stage with no money disbursed.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is working on the Amerindian Development Fund has submitted a draft ‘initiation plan’ though no start date has been identified. At the end of this initiation plan, one of the expected outcomes is that the full project document would have been prepared and submitted. The time period for the initiation plan is nine months. In March, the UNDP requested US$1.8 million for project preparation. The UNDP was also working on the land titling project but it is not clear how far this project has moved.
With regard to the Micro and Small Enterprise Development project, the Project Concept Note (PCN) has been approved and funds allocated for project proposal preparation. The PCN for the Cunha Canal has been submitted and approval was expected some weeks ago but it is not clear if this has happened.
Norway has committed to provide up to US$250 million to the fund up to 2015, based on independent verifications of Guyana’s deforestation and forest degradation rates and progress on REDD+ enabling activities. It has since deposited US$70 million into the GRIF and a further US$40 million is expected this year based on results.
